Of Golda and Dildos: Thoughts on Israel’s First Sex Festival

In an effort to boost the quality and quantity of Israel's sex life, Tel-Aviv recently hosted the country's first ever sex festival. The 'Sextival', as it is called, was co-sponsored by Playboy and organized by ex-model Nitzan Kirshenboim. The event featured an array of stalls, workshops, toy sales, erotic shows, Playboy bunnies, and art exhibitions.

The highlight of the Sextival was a contest crowning the best stripper in Israel (broadcast live on Israel's digital cable channel Ego) and a raffle with a trip for two to Hugh Hefner's legendary Playboy mansion. Although the event brought out a few protesters, for the most part the three-day affair went without any problems.

Of course no major event in Israel is without political significance. A sex festival, much like the gay pride parades, is a unique phenomenon in the region. You will not find one in Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, or Iran. As Nitzan Kirshenboim, the woman behind the festival jokingly pointed out: "Tel-Aviv can now brag about a new record. We have the largest number of vibrating dildos in all of the Middle East."

Not surprisingly, some Israelis and Jews have had a problem with the festival - seeing it as a degenerating sign that Israel is turning into a new Sodom and Gomorrah: a sinful society devoid of god consciousness. Or to put it in secular terms, a society in which the altruistic “we” has transformed into the self-serving and hedonistic “I.”

But having the largest collection of vibrating dildos is part of what it means to be the only democracy in the Middle East. This is the price of being a western-oriented free society. Moreover, far from being an anathema to the Jewish state, the values of the sextival are in keeping with the Zionist ethos of normalizing and transforming the very physicality of the Jewish people. Zionism was not only a nationalistic movement to safeguard a people and a culture, it was also an erotic revolution: one that sought to create tanned and muscular Jews, to equalize the relations between the sexes, and within its socialist parameters to reject the very tradition and concept of marriage.

Kosher cheesecake: Last year's Maxim spread of Israeli soldiers caused controversyIn some sense the original erotic impulse of Zionism was sublimated into the conquest, submission, and fertilization of the land. The marriage, to use Buber’s phrase, of Adam (Human) and Adama (earth). In effect then, what events like the sextival are actually doing is bringing back the transformative and sexually creative potentiality of Zionism. Or as Philip Roth would say, putting back the Id in Yid.

While Herzl may not have approved of lap-dances, and Golda may not have purchased the latest model of the Rabbit, their call for normalization is in accord with the goal of the sextival – i.e. to normalize sexuality.

“The idea is to get the issue of sex out in the open”, explains Kirshenboim, “It's out there in the world, it's big and beautiful and everyone does it…As a woman, I see the Sextival, a cultural event in every way, as a way to lead a revolution in Israel in turning the issue of sex into a legitimate concept that's healthy, creative and relevant, as long as it's conducted between two consenting adults."

Beyond the Zionistic overtones of the festival, there are also practical advantages to sexualizing Israel. According to Freud, there is a direct causal connection between repressed sexual energy and aggressive behavior (think of the allure of 72 virgins). New research has even shown that exposure to porn reduces an individual’s propensity for committing sexual crimes. In other words, getting people comfortable with sex, exposing them to choices, giving people new outlets of release, may in fact lower the levels of violence and aggression in society.

Cicciolina: Yoo hoo! Osama! The pacifying power of pussy was not lost on the great Italian porn star and former MP Cicciolina, who in the 1990s offered herself to Saddam Hussein on condition that he would abandon his rule over Iraq. More recently, the aging vixen presented the same deal to Osama Bin Laden. In her words:

It is time someone did something about Bin Laden, and I am ready to do it. I am ready to make a deal. He can have me in exchange for an end to his tyranny. My breasts have only ever helped people while Bin Laden has killed thousands of innocent victims.

Of course “Porn for Peace” can have a spill over effect in the entire region. And judging by the number of Arabs who get a kick watching Israeli porn, it is a peace formula that has a chance of gaining some traction. One can only hope that copy-cat festivals will one day spring up in neighboring countries.

A final point is that the sextival comes at an opportune time for Israel. The subject of sex and Israel has been in the news as of late – and for all the wrong reasons. In a period that witnessed sex scandals at the highest levels of the country’s political echelon - with ex-president Moshe Katsav being accused of rape and Justice Minster Haim Ramon of harassing a female solider - it is refreshing to see Israelis encouraged to release their libidinal energies in healthy and constructive ways. As Joel Schalit, author of the forthcoming Israel VS. Utopia, eloquently observes:

Tel Aviv had to host a 'Sextival,' because Israel had to demonstrate to the outside world that at least some Israelis have a positive attitude towards their sexuality, one which is neither intertwined with militarization, such as the Maxim feature [Women of the IDF] might suggest, nor oriented towards preserving Israeli society's typically masculine social hierarchy, such as that brought to Diaspora light by last year's government sex scandals. Like the country's increasingly popular 'Pride' parades and the success of gay Israeli films, the Tel Aviv Sextival was a sign that, for some, Israel can also be a zone of liberation.

By serving as a platform of normalization and liberation, by returning to the original and revolutionary erotic roots of Zionism, the sextival marked an important milestone in the evolution of Israeli society. While Israel has a long way to go before it reaches the levels of openness that characterize some of the European countries that host similar events, the sextival was a good first step. I, for one, am hoping for a “spanking” sequel.